Analytics firm AppData pollutes web with sketchy Instagram info

A couple weeks after a concentrated uproar over Instagram’s privacy policies — which were largely pointless anyway — analytics outfit AppData has told the New York Post that its data shows users are fleeing the service because of the terms of service announcement. The company’s data showed that Instagram peaked at 16.4 million active daily users the week it rolled out its policy change but had plummeted to 12.4 million as of Thursday.

The problem is that they have no scientific footing to stand on here.

First of all, I can’t find the survey where AppData actually asked users why they’re leaving Instagram. You’d think they’d back up why they are “pretty sure” about their conclusions, as they told the trusty Post, with the survey results. (AppData has not yet responded to a request for comment.)

But second, and far more importantly, anyone who takes 10 extra seconds to sort through AppData’s analysis of other top websites — Pinterest, Spotify, Farmville, Yahoo Social Bar — will see that just about all of them had a similar drop off in user activity around the same time. I haven’t conducted my own survey but I’m going to throw out the idea that this has something to do with a thing called the “Christmas holiday.” Less people are at work. More people are on vacation or spending time offline with family.

This was, afterall, a measurement of daily active users — people using the service that day — not a decline in overall Instagram membership.

Also, if the drop for Instagram was due to the privacy policy changes, wouldn’t it be logical that you’d see such a precipitous drop, oh, I dunno, when the privacy policies were changed? Not randomly a week later?

I have no doubt there are people out there who have left Instagram in a huff over the policy changes. And certainly there were people over Christmas who actually used Instagram more than usual.

But to me, these statistics and conclusions smell like one of the many many Web analytic firms trying to get its name in the press with some flimsy information that makes a great headline. Please disregard.